This invention relates to vacuum cleaners and more particularly to an adaptor attachable to upright vacuum cleaners to permit a flexible hose and extension tools to be connected to the nozzle mouth of the cleaner for above-the-floor cleaning.
Vacuum cleaners of the upright variety generally include a chassis having an elongated nozzle mouth or opening at the bottom thereof through which air is sucked by an air moving motor-fan unit, a rotary brush mounted adjacent to the nozzle mouth for contacting a floor surface to agitate and loosen the dirt so that it may be sucked free of the surface, wheels for rolling the cleaner on the floor and a handle for guiding and propelling the cleaner. Most common household cleaning chores involve the cleaning of carpeting, and an upright cleaner is best for such usage. However, in those instances where above-the-floor cleaning of such items as furniture, walls, ceilings, and drapery or the like is required, a conventional upright cleaner is useless. The typical vacuum cleaner for such cleaning is a canister type which includes a hose having one extremity leading to a suction chamber and the other exremity adapted to receive a plurality of interchangeable accessory nozzles.
In order to minimize the need for a household to have these two types of cleaners, the prior art has attempted various approaches of converting one type of cleaner to the use usually reserved to the other type. For example, canister cleaners having means for accepting a power brush attachment for the cleaning of floors is well-known. Moreover, adaptors for attachment to an upright vacuum cleaner to convert to above-the-floor cleaning is also known. Examples of the known prior art in this latter area are U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,021,731; 1,184,201; 1,227,142; 1,648,466; 1,673,920; 1,920,621; 2,606,336; 2,871,504; and 2,996,748. The adaptors disclosed in each of these prior art patents mount on the bottom of the upright cleaner in underlaying substantially sealed relation with the nozzle mouth to communicate a hose with the cleaner suction chamber. A disadvantage of these known prior art units is that they are difficult to install and secure on the cleaner chassis. Special brackets have generally been used to prevent loosening of the adaptors due to vibration when the cleaners are operating.